Kanpai

This has rapidly become my favorite oriental restaurant in the Savannah area. My wife and I have started coming here regularly, and have yet to have a bad experience! It also the only place I can get her to order real sushi…
The closest to any kind of problem we’ve had was actually tonight, when the servers seemed lost. We had one if the servers walk up and explain that they’d had a scheduling issue, and the only servers other than her were still training. Even so, we didn’t wait an inordinate amount of time and our food was still fantastic.
The Shogun, Samurai and Geisha are by far the best deals. They are alarmingly large boxes of food which only cost $ 12 – 17 depending on the protein.
I’d also suggest the Savannah Sunrise and Kamikaze roll!

This is your typical hibachi/​sushi restaurant. They have a small, cozy dining room which is nice and off to side their is an expandable room for large parties. There is a small sushi bar off to the side, so it’s great if you are only looking to grab some sushi rolls. We have yet to try the sushi and it is definitely something we always ‘plan to do next time.’ We typically always go for hibachi dishes not only for generous portions but for their shrimp sauce. Service is usually pretty good and you always get what you pay for.

This is my go to sushi place for one roll (it’s that good) — try the Savannah Beach Roll! The salads with ginger dressing are great — I wish they’d sell the dressing! The service is also good. I’ve never seen it too busy, which I personally like. My husband likes the steak and scallops, which comes with soup and salad.

My salad was swimming in an inch of dressing like soup, no kidding. The soba dish was drowned in a dark sugar sauce and lacked any ounce of color, or care. My wife tasted it to confirm it wasn’t pleasant. Maybe a bad night for a new cook? We’ll be back for great sushi though.
And uh oh, my mushroom soup had no mushrooms in it. Is this right? But it seemed like lightly flavored water.
Photos of Mr Brown sauce can be seen on previous reviews by Sarra. Thanks!

One of my «close to home favorites.» Miss the curries though :(the yellow curry was awesome. Sushi is good here, not mind blowing but worth coming back for. We’re pretty regular here! Fresh fish, that’s my favorite part.

Sushi is very good for a small restaurant. I don’t say that lightly very, very good. The meat is good. The seafood is good. The chicken is good. The vegetables… Are awfully subpar. If this place had zucchini and onions instead of shitty tasteless bland crappy cabbage bullshit vegetables it would have gotten five stars.

We love Kanpai! We live on Whitemarsh, and love to call in an order and pick it up. It’s always ready when we get there. Delicious Chicken Teriyaki! We each get it a different way (with or without vegetables, and with fried or white rice), and they always get the order right. Thanks, Kanpai!

Recently this location was totally redone on the inside. New painted walls, a cleaner and neat sushi bar and most importantly a nicer wait staff.
I always get teriyaki chicken and sushi, the quality of the food is 100% better than a year ago.
They have become my favorite place on the islands to go for food.

If you can get over the awful green walls, too-​bright lights and American soft-​rock, the rest of the atmosphere isn’t bad. It’s clean and not too loud. It was busy on a Sunday night. Although I saw no one of oriental descent working, the Japanese food was still passable, although slightly expensive. Not great sushi, but not terrible. The waitstaff is all teenagers and the service isn’t very good. During our visit our drinks went empty and we had to call over the waitress to get another. The crowning moment of our visit was when the entire staff took a shot of saki with a customer at the bar.

This is probably one of the worst Japanese restaurants I have been to. The sushi is mediocre and the rest of the food I have had on this menu is trifling. The atmosphere is just laughable and if you get takeout, you usually are missing stuff when you get home and unpack it. They have a bunch of high school kids waiting on tables, so in most cases, you know you’re going to get incompetency. I have gave this place more than enough chances and I am done with them.

Great staff! Kid friendly! Most beautiful and tasty sushi I’ve had in savannah! My favorites are the Savannah Sunrise (spicy tuna with avocado) and Olivia Roll (eel with avocado)! Also, great Crab Rangoon and sake! A new favorite!

I would not waste your money. There food is terrible. Egg roll was mushy, meaning it was frozen and then fried. I had the shrimp and chicken. The shrimp had a strong fishy smell and the sauce they used was so sweet it was like eating candy. The food was expensive and just plain lousy.

My cousin who now lives in Savannah, GA brought us to Kanpai for some dessert. (We were visiting from New Jersey).
Their special Lava cake was so delicious. The soft and moist chocolate cake was very warm and topped and surrounded with cold ice cream and whipped cream. My kids love them. And the mochi ice cream (different flavors) was also delicious. I like the green tea flavor the best.
They also have the unique Japanese soda where there is a marble that you will push in to open it. My kids had fun opening the bottles. They serve great desserts here. Service was excellent.
We are glad we stopped by here. We will visit again if we are in the area.

Everybody must try this restaurant. I had a combination platter with a sushi roll as well. Delicious!

I dont care what anybody else says, I love this place. Since moving to Savannah I’ve been looking for a place with good sushi that isn’t overpriced, which also serves quality non-​sushi dishes that my wife will enjoy. So far, only this place has fit the bill. The friendly service also compliments this place nicely. For now, the missus and I have found out laid back Japanese spot in Savannah.

As I continue my search for amazing sushi in Savannah, I realize that no place will ever live up to my expectations… but this doesn’t mean I can’t keep looking!
I was pleased with Kanpai, despite my trepidation after reading some of the reviews. I went in with an open mind and an empty belly.
The biggest, and most pleasant surprise, was the Savannah Spring Roll. Maybe it’s just the mayo, but this was moist, delicious and really filling. I wanted to order some to take home with me, but spring rolls just aren’t the same the next day… rice paper doesn’t travel well.
The other rolls we tried were acceptable, but obviously didn’t leave a huge impression, as I can’t recall what they were. However, I’ll be going back to try them again… if only to get more spring rolls!

Good food regardless of what others have said. The meal was well priced, and there was a lot of it.

The only thing this place has going for it is that the staff is nice. I’ve only ordered takeout from here twice, but the second time was proof that it is consistently sub-​par. While I waited for my order, I noticed that the cooks making the sushi were openly drinking in plain view of the entire restaurant– not just a little nip here and there but really slugging it down; needless to say it was not a great impression. As for the food itself, the California rolls were good but the rest of the sushi was so dried out and steeped in vinegar that it was completely inedible. Avoid!!!

Not the best-​ever Japanese but it is pretty good and cheap. After going there several times to please my fiancée, I finally found a sushi roll I could enjoy: the crunchy bueno roll with no mayo. It is big enough for two. We always get the same thing and split the crunchy bueno roll and the chicken teriyaki. The chicken is pretty good, has a good flavor and is usually very tender. The service is mediocre though.

I’m amazed this place is actually allowed to call itself a restaurant. I’ve questioned this fact as soon as I’ve laid eyes on the place. The milieu of this Japanese-​themed establishment is sub-​dive, with dirt on the floors and sticky tables. Real restaurants aren’t this filthy.
First, there lingers an aroma of fish rot that smacks you in the face as soon as you open the door. The kind of fish rot that even the neighborhood cats avoid.
After you sit down, the service isn’t terrible. This place hires local teenagers, and they do the best that they can under the circumstances. Unfortunately, when the place is a dump, they don’t take the pride to know anything about the menu or to care terribly much about contributing to the dining experience.
The food comes out pretty quickly. My wife and I have been here a few times to make sure they weren’t having an «off» day, and we have also ordered different things from the menu. The one thing I can say about the food here is that it’s consistent.
Unfortunately, it’s consistently bad… as in, run-​to-​the-​bathroom-​when-​you-​get-​home-​bad. I don’t know why I bother to order sushi at this place –it’s always fishy, slimy, and the rice is always a little too warm, which enhances the ick factor of the rotting fish. This has been the only place where I leave half the meal on the plate while still hungry.
My wife tends to get noodle-​based dishes when we go out for Japanese, and every time we’ve gone to Kanpai, it’s a mess on a plate. It always tastes like someone in the kitchen is experimenting with sauces they just discovered at an Asian grocery store. I’ve made salty, weird, not at all Japanese-​tasting dishes like these in my own kitchen, so my palate is well versed in this taste of failure.
It’s a shame, really. One of these days, there will be a Japanese restaurant on Wilmington Island (Savannah). Kanpai needs to stop pretending to be such an establishment, and close down already. The people of Sakura need to bring their brand of inexpensive, high-​quality Japanese to the islands. They face no competition here.